Toyota F1 in Monterey,Ca.

[DWimages]

Hello all;
There are only two places where you will see F1 cars in action in the USA this year, one is Indianapolis,Ind. and the other is Monterey,Ca. during the 33rd. Annual Monterey Historics Here is one image from this afternoons demo laps at Laguna. Ricardo Zonta was the driver and he shattered the absolute lap record today with a 1 min. 6 hundreths of a sec. What a sound.To finish off the demo he did several donuts on the narrowest part of the front straightaway.


Mike Doran
D&W Images

[TCorzett]

Looks like fun, but I'm glad I slept in this morning :D

-Todd...

[Frogballs]

Were there a lot of people there? I know there is a ton of hype about the historic race and the record being crushed by Toyota and it being a Mazda sponsor. Rumor has it a second car will be there and F-1 is sending some scouts to see how the cars go, maybe eliminate INDY? That will get Michelin pumped...

[Jimages]

Indy would probably be favourite to retain the Grand Prix, because of the facilities there built specially for the F1 Grand Prix.

For the Grand Prix to go to some of the classic road tracks in the states, Bernie and the FIA would probably demand track development, including track safety features, and facilites, which could pretty much destroy the soul and character of a venue.

[stevieboy378]

No matter how many times one sees and hears F1 cars on TV, hearing one "in the flesh", so to speak, is mindblowing . . . .

[Jamie Holladay]

Nice shot Mike. Thanks for sharing the info.

[Jimages]

No matter how many times one sees and hears F1 cars on TV, hearing one "in the flesh", so to speak, is mindblowing . . . .

Yeah F1 engines are something else. So bloomin loud under load, but also pretty quiet off the loud pedal.

The V8 development has been frightening fast. During the winter, the sound of the V8 had a signifcantly different note to the V10's... but by April the V8's were sounding more and more like the V10. Which to me indicates that it didn't take long for the V8 to far exceed it's performance expectations. No wonder the FIA want to put a freeze on Engine development. Which is a shame, because it would be nice to have a variety of engines again. ie, V12, V10, V8 etc.

[stevieboy378]

The V8 development has been frightening fast. During the winter, the sound of the V8 had a signifcantly different note to the V10's... but by April the V8's were sounding more and more like the V10. Which to me indicates that it didn't take long for the V8 to far exceed it's performance expectations. No wonder the FIA want to put a freeze on Engine development. Which is a shame, because it would be nice to have a variety of engines again. ie, V12, V10, V8 etc.

Thats exactly what I love about F1 - every year the FIA bring out a new set of rules to cripple the performance of the cars, and every year the teams find a way around them . . . .

[birmphoto]

i will post my pictures from the event later on, but i just want to say that it was the best motorsports event i have ever been to! i have been dying to be there for many years, but living in new york and the cost of the event i was never able to make it, but now im a photographer living in cali, so i had no excuse.... simply amazing!

and it was my first time seeing and hearing a F1 car in person!

[tri99sprint]

Another place that had a F1 car was Miller Motorsports park during the HSR event.
This one is a 1994 Benetton that Mr. Schumacher drove to win his first World Championship.
What a sweet sounding car! Especially going down the 3550' front straight.

[Jimages]

hmm Retro.

Back in 1994, F1 still had a variety of engine, for example that Benetton had a Ford Cosworth V8, the last of the marque to win a world championship, Williams had Renault V10's and Ferrari still had the V12.

F1 sounded so much better back then, and the V12 could practically drown out the sound of all the other engines.

[ajbalazic]

Nothing comares to the sound of an F1 car. Thanks for sharing.

[Rick Wong]

Nice shot.Now an F1 car going through the corkscrew?I'd like to see that!

[swalter]

Toyota have some videos here:

http://www.toyota.com/montereyhistoric/videos.html